


In My Heart

by regalroses



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Implied/Referenced Suicide, it's actually kind of platonic???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 14:44:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5630311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regalroses/pseuds/regalroses





	In My Heart

**In My Heart**  
_“If I know in my heart / then I know it’s true / I can go to a place that I share with you.”_

“Isn’t this view amazing, Josephine?” Cassandra said as she pulled down the black beanie on her head. Her smile was wide as she put her hand down on the rock. Her legs were crossed and her eyes were wide, she almost seemed like an amazed elementary student. The key word was almost. There was a very distinct look in her eyes that told everyone around her that something was not right. It was easy for everyone else to pick out. They all heard about what’s been going around the school. “You used to love this place… you liked the serenity it held. You know, the sounds of the waves hitting the rocks. The trees swaying gently whenever there would be a light breeze. You and I came here at dawn a lot whenever we needed to talk things out. The sunrise that this place would display is just so beautiful.” There was no answer from Josephine. Cassandra didn’t seem shocked though, Josephine hadn’t been answering to her for quite a while now. It was alright though; she never saw this as a problem. Sure, she was the one doing all of the talking, but what did that matter? She was grateful that she even bothered to listen to her pointless rambling.

_“It’s never pointless,” Josephine would say. “it’s just how things have always been between us. You do all the talking, and I’ll do the listening. It’s as simple as that.” “But I don’t want things to be that way between us.” Cassandra used to argue.  
“I just feel selfish and… wrong if you don’t share what you’re feeling and how you’re doing. I want to hear about your day too.” The thought back to that put a smile on her face for a while before it started to fade away. _

“This place is a beautiful place. It’s secluded, it’s mystical, it’s… breathtaking.” She said as she looked throughout the horizon. The sun was setting graciously. The two girls had a tradition, they would meet at this exact area every Friday, just to talk or maybe even just to sit in silence and take in the vast beauty of everything around them. There have been only a few occasions where the tradition has been broken, but that didn’t mean that they would just wait for the next Friday to come around. Josephine and Cassandra would come here on Saturdays if they couldn’t make it the day before.

_“Cass, I can’t make it to the view this Friday.” Josephine said rushed, forcing her papers and her textbooks into her bag quickly. Cassandra cocked her head and looked at her, quite confused.  
“Why not… is something wrong? Did something happen recently?” She asked as she put her backpack over her shoulder and following Josephine to her locker. “I just can’t. I’m stacked with all this homework and work needs me to cover a shift.” Cassandra nodded slightly at what she said, but she wasn’t sure what she meant by, “stacked with homework.” The teachers have barely assigned homework for the past week due to vacation coming around the corner. “Ah… well, I understand! Do you think that you can come tomorrow then?” “Yeah… sure.”_

Cassandra swung her legs over the edge, sitting where the two girls always sat together. The sky was painted with a beautiful orange-yellow color of some sort. There were even tints of purple in the sky. “You know, there may be words that can describe things, but I don’t think that there’s a group of them that you can put together to truly capture the beauty of a sunset. I mean, people can call it ‘beautiful’ or ‘ravishing’, but it never truly gives the sunset the justice that it deserves.” She said and smiled lightly. “I remember this one time when you…” Cassandra looked over to her left and frowned. She quickly added, “Never mind.” afterwards.

_“Cassandra, I’m begging you, please just leave me alone. I can’t bother to deal with this right now.” Josephine snapped and slammed her locker door. Cassandra furrowed her eyebrows. “What, is this just not important to you? Josie, I got the lead in the play, and you can’t bother to listen to me for ten seconds?” Cassandra snapped at her, clearly outraged by her actions. “That’s all I’ve been doing for the past ten years, Cass. Ten whole years, and you’re getting mad at me because I’m in a rush.” Josephine said and pushed the door to the school, stepping onto the stairs while turning to face Cassandra._  
_“I don’t get it, you’re an entirely different person from the Josephine Grace Montilyet that I know.”_  
_“The Josephine that you know is no longer her, Cass. Now look… I have to go. Just, text me later.”_

Cassandra wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Why was she getting all of these old memories? They haunted her enough as it was, did they really need to come back right now? She wasn’t going to let this get the best of her, however. She wanted to remain strong, so she put a smile on her face and carried on with the conversation that she was so desperately trying to start. “Your drawing won an award by the way. Nearly everyone voted for it, it was such an inspiring piece that it moved a lot of people in our class.” She said and ran a hand up and down her arm. “You know, I’ve never seen the lake frozen over this early in the year. In the past ten years, I think that this is the year that it’s finally frozen up in the beginning of November. I think that you’re finally going to get the snow that you’ve been wishing for!”

_“Winter always has been my favorite season.” Josephine mused, looking out into the distance and admiring the snowflakes falling, covering the ground like a white blanket._  
_“Is it because your birthday is in January?” Cassandra asked, laughing a little bit. Josephine shook her head._  
_“It’s hardly because of that. Just think about it for a moment, the snow falling, the sound that the newly fallen snow makes whenever you step on it, the warmth of the fireplace, the beautiful Christmas lights are up every year, that really good hot cocoa that your mom makes… it’s just an amazing season. I’ve always had amazing experiences in winter.” Cassandra looked out into the distance, trying to see what she saw. She slowly nodded, realizing that she never took the time to truly appreciate the scenery. “Yeah, I guess I do know what you mean.”_

Cassandra shook her head. “I can’t do this.” She mumbled herself before she stood up, walking away from the ledge as the tears started to flow down her cheeks. “Josephine, I can’t keep pretending anymore. I come here every Friday and it just pains me…”

_“Josephine Montilyet is dead.” Cassandra couldn’t believe the blunt words that came out of the school counselor._  
_“D…dead? No, it can’t be… I refuse to believe that! This is outrageous!” She exclaimed, standing up from the chair and pacing around the room. “That girl had her entire life in front of her, she had all this talent that she could have put to good use!”_  
_“Cassandra… please calm-”_  
_“I’m not going to calm down when you’re telling me that my best friend, the person that has stood by me for as long as I can remember is dead!” She yelled and started breathing in heavily before sinking against the wall and letting the tears freely flow down her face. It was a few moments before she mustered the courage to ask, “How did she die?”_  
_“Josephine Montilyet committed suicide late last night.”_

“My last words to you were, ‘okay, whatever.’ I want to take that all back now. I wanted to be by you, I’m your best friend and you never bothered to tell me any of your problems…” Cassandra said, not even realizing that she was just rambling on to herself. “I didn’t want things to end like this. Your life ended too young, you had so much to live for. I never wanted you to leave. I was never really mad at you… I wanted to apologize to you for the longest time. I wanted to apologize for not checking up on you regularly, I wanted to apologize to you for not making it last Friday… but now all I really want to do know is make things right.” Cassandra sank to the ground, her hands shaking and her breathing starting to get choppy. “I’m so sorry…” She said before she sat on the ground for what seemed like hours. When her hands stopped shaking and her breathing returned to normal, Cassandra took that as her cue to leave. She stood up from the ground and walked over to Josephine’s grave that was just a few feet in front of her. “I love you as if you were my own sister, Josie. I’m never going to find a friend that was as great of one as you were.” She walked away from the grave and got into her car, driving away slowly. Even though she had watched Josephine get buried, she knew that she wasn’t truly dead. She would always have a place in Cassandra’s heart until the end of time.


End file.
